Industry Committee on June 7th, 2016

[Mitch Davies]

The industrial and technological benefits policy that Canada follows is completely consistent with our trade obligations. Many countries adopt similar types of policies to get offsets related to defence procurement. The alternative, of course, is to buy indigenous capabilities and technologies, or some combination of these. In the case of Canada, we've taken an approach that focuses on industrial technology benefits, which allows for the fact that we're a smaller economy market and don't have capability across all the areas that we're buying—

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

No, I don't need an explanation. The answer, then, is yes, and we can do this.

[Mitch Davies]

Most certainly, sir, yes.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

That's fine, thanks. I just have limited time.

And lastly on that, does it include a component for servicing and refurbishment and, in the case of my hometown sub, the HMCS Windsor, for towing?

[Mitch Davies]

My apologies, Mr. Chair, but I can't answer specifically on that one specific service, contract—

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Okay, so not a specific service contract—

[Mitch Davies]

So significant service contracts, which are actually a big part of the procurement, are definitely a part of the process and there would be bids and requirements on industrial and technological benefits related to any of those parts of the procurement process.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Very good.

To move to the question of tourism, is there going to be tracking, for example, of sports tourism and culinary tourism. Also, has there been an evaluation related to.... Right now border operators across Canada are concerned about the availability of CBSA staff at United States border crossings. Has any of that concern been communicated to you, and what type of communication has been going on with CBSA with regard to staffing components related to increasing American tourism coming into Canada?

[Mitch Davies]

The supplementary estimates specifically address this funding for Destination Canada to work on our priority markets to enhance our level of effort.

I think the other part of this is that you're talking about what I call whole-of-government coordination around tourism.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Yes.

[Mitch Davies]

There is such a whole-of-government table that's led by our department in support of the minister responsible for tourism, to bring all departments, including for example Transport Canada, but also the border services agency and departments that can have a significant impact and influence on attracting people, by making Canada easy to enter and welcoming and so forth, and all of the considerations in your question. Those are the very conversations that take place among departments in that regard.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Has there been an evaluation, though? What's the number of increased tourism that you want to get from the United States? Has that been targeted? What locations are being focused on—it could be more than just my region, of Niagara Falls and so forth—and then what are the resource improvements?

I ask because many border operators complain that they don't have staffing and that booths are left unprovided for on a continual basis, even with long lineups.

[Mitch Davies]

The specifics of the performance metrics around Destination Canada's activities are one question in and of itself. I know that they track visitation levels, tourist export revenues generated by visitors, and the ratio of partner co-investment they can attract with the dollars we put in. Those are the sorts of metrics.

In terms of attracting U.S. tourists, they focus on long-haul markets because people from these markets have been shown to spend more. These are people coming from Houston, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles through the Connecting America program. They do try, of course, to get the biggest bang for the buck in terms of where they're putting their investment, because there are obviously choices to be made and they try to get the most for the dollars they're investing.

You'd probably have to direct that specific question to them, as far as some of those border activities and so on are concerned. Perhaps they could provide more information.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Do I have any more time, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

You have a minute and a half.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Perfect. I'll follow up on that. With regard to measurables at the end of the day, for this year, what are the targets for this? I understand the face value logic of trying to get Boston and Texas and other places, but the reality is that the vast majority of American tourists cross, along with their cars, into southern Ontario cities. Is there going to be any special target like, again, sports tourism or any other type of tourism to bring them across? Say, for example, it's our casino industries. Or is it going to be other types of destinations, including visitations for family? What's the plan, I guess?

[Mitch Davies]

Again, I would defer to my colleagues at Destination Canada if we are looking for more specific information. My apologies that I am not able to provide that level of detail.

I think the other key is to think of them as one part of an overall portfolio of effort right down to the municipal level, the local economic development and provincial level, and so forth. They are one partner and try to lever that overall activity to get the biggest benefit. There might well be parts of the puzzle that are really relevant to specific markets that might well be served by other players in the tourism promotion business as well, which is quite important to take into account.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Arseneault, you have seven minutes.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to share my time with my colleague, Mr. Longfield.

Ms. Charette, gentlemen, welcome, Thank you for being here.

I am going to spend a little time on the expenses in the form of votes to be adopted for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, or ACOA.

The vote allocates $8.3 million for affordable housing and social infrastructure as part of a horizontal initiative announced in budget 2016.

I do not want to repeat the question that my colleague Chandra Arya asked, but how do you explain the agency's specific role in the area of affordable housing and social infrastructure? What are the parameters that will allow access to that funding?

[David Enns]

I think an interesting confusion is created by the way that appears in the estimates documents, because the regional development agencies are not doing anything in affordable housing, per se. It's part of a much larger social infrastructure package of funding that was provided in budget 2016. There's a portion of that funding that is for recreational and cultural infrastructure, and it is that funding that is being provided to all of the regional development agencies for projects related to cultural and recreational infrastructure. They'll be doing things like making improvements to arenas, and working on parks and municipal facilities and roof replacements, a range of things that are eligible under the program. But the line in the estimates that puts it with social infrastructure and affordable housing is a bit misleading because it's not for social housing.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

It's not what it is at all. So it's for creative, sports...?

[David Enns]

Cultural.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

It's cultural only.

As for sport and culture, are ACOA and the other economic development agencies in the regions of Canada used to managing funding of that kind?

[David Enns]

As I mentioned earlier, this program has already been announced and launched through budget 2015. These local community projects are the kinds of projects that those agencies have a lot of experience in delivering, and they have all the connections and the infrastructure and the networks on the ground in the regions to deliver on projects of that nature.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Speaking of networks on the ground,

I would like to look at some comparisons. You provide a number that shows the ratio of management costs to the proposed budgets. I am not sure if you are following me. For the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the ratio is 2.8%, which I see as extremely low. Especially when compared with all the others, CanNor specifically, which, at 112.4%, is extraordinarily high.

How can you explain a figure like that?